


all that remained in the box was hope

by writingismypoison



Series: a second glance-character studies [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, I mean??, Keith's Backgroud, Other, its hard to tag, well? kind of, yall read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 17:03:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11017737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingismypoison/pseuds/writingismypoison
Summary: Keith didn't hope. That was plain and simple to understand.So why couldn't his feelings get with the program?---it's keith turn! time to for the grumpy red one to join in on this angst fest.





	all that remained in the box was hope

**Keith** knew he wasn't a dreamer. It was in his blood, and taught to him from a very young age. Moving from foster home to foster home, never getting adopted. It was too much for his young heart to take. So by the tender age of 10, he had given up on all of his dreams of family, and acceptance.

 

See, as a kid, Keith had dreamed that he would have a little-orphan-Annie story, ending with a nice family who loved him. Instead he got disappointment and danger, in many different forms. From the people who he had gotten, from the abusers to the alcoholics to the downright dirty, almost getting sold into the sex trade (a whole ‘nother story 

 

The adoption process is a very dangerous business. No one in it would use that word to describe it. Depressing, hopeless? Yes. But dangerous is a word they would keep behind closed doors, in the background checks that weren't so through.

 

Keith, unluckily, got a string of families all with less than stellar backgrounds.

 

But he didn't look back on it. Because looking back blurs the brightness of anyone's future, ruins the mood of any day. “Always look forward” to may be a saying associated with optimistic people, but it was Keith's motto.

 

He wasn't an optimistic person.

 

Having your dreams crushed over and over again makes you like that. Having the hope you thought was already crushed beaten down to a pulp, grounded up, and burned makes you what some may call a pessimist. Keith calls it reality.

 

Then came the Garrison, and along with it, Shiro. Maybe the only true family he had. He knew it was too good to be true. Life had already played him enough as it is, and this was only another cruel trick he was getting played on.

 

But as a year passed filled with laughter, and midnight chats, and preparing for an adventure, he dared to hope.

 

Hope is a fickle thing. One moment it's on your side, helping you up. The next, it's helping your enemies push you off your high. Hope and destruction go hand in hand, and you never see one without the other close behind

 

Which is why when he heard news of the Kerberos mission, he had laughed hysterically.

 

Fate had finally caught up to him. He could never have nice things, or even okay things, because he was Keith Kogane. Everything around him and associated with him brought down chaos. 

 

And sure, maybe it wasn't okay for him to be used to failure, used to this sense of unrest, but he was.

 

There was nothing to be done about it.

 

He cut off all ties with people who could be associated with him. Those who, with a little push, might get closer to him. Like that cute cargo pilot who always argued with him about the dumbest topics and still left a smile on his face. And Ms. Stella, the custodian that worked at the Garrison that helped him through panic attacks more than once. He would miss them, but their safety was more important than stupid nostalgia.

 

So he sucked it up and moved on. Firstly, he needed a place to stay.

 

But a city would be too big, and easy for him to find someone to depend on.

 

He went to the desert. It was the only the place he would be able to not find anything to ruin through his destructive nature.

 

Finally, it was all better.

 

At least, at first. Then the pangs of loneliness hit him. Listening in on a stray radio station. Finding that necklace. That star the looked as blue as the eyes of that cargo-

 

Every time this happened, he forced the thoughts away. It wasn't good for him to dwell on the past.

 

So he went forward, with what some would call reckless abandon. If he wasn't looking back, then what he didn’t wouldn't matter. He didn’t have to look forward to anything. Nothing would change. 

 

_ You had to believe it will,  _ a voice sounding suspiciously like Shiro urged him.  _ You have to believe that things will be better. Have a little hope. _

 

He didn’t hope. He didn’t even know what hope was anymore, besides a way for him to let his guard down.

 

Logic was a better option.

 

Keith’s logic wouldn't be able to get broken down by others- or himself, at any rate.

 


End file.
